EJBs are not covered in the exam (it is in SCBCD). SCWCD is about Servlets/JSP and JSTL. Actually, there may be questions about the declaration of EJB references(ejb-ref and ejb-local-ref) in the deployment descriptor.

I can't tell you about the book, but the exam itself is not concerned with EJB (That's covered in SCBCD (Business Component Developer)). The Web Component Developer is primarily concerned with JSP and Servlets.

As far as the value of the certifications, I am currently studying for both the SCBCD and SCWCD certificates. I work in a J2EE development environment, so this material is especially relevant for me. At the end of the day, the certification is just a piece of paper - I find the value in the "learning" that goes along with studying for the exams (of course taking the exam is the final step to prove to yourself and others that you've (to some degree) mastered the topics).

You need to have a good understanding of the topics in order to pass the exams, so for me, they are well worth doing.

Dear Charles, are you going to talk specifically about a certain container, or about any container? Or, what is the default container for your book?

The Web server I most frequently make reference to is the J2EE 1.4 Reference Implementation which is Sun's AppServer 8. However, AppServer 8 is in fact just Tomcat 5.x (I think 5.0) underneath, so equally I occasionally make an aside comment about Tomcat (such as the unavailability of JSTL as standard - note all the libraries are installed in the RI).

in your opinion, should we wait till EE 5 finalized? Does the exam cover EJB as well? How useful this certification compare to ones from IBM for example?

The book covers, in two additional chapters, all the changes to the Java EE 5 Web tier, with the exception of JavaServer Faces which is just too big to put at the end of one book! My contact at Sun almost guaranteed me the SCWCD exam wouldn't be updated - aside from the addition of JSF, there isn't anything fundamentally different.

The SCWCD exam does not cover EJBs - the SCBCD exam will be revised significantly for Java EE 5.

As for IBM certifications, I was under the impression that their certs. are all based around their products like Websphere and the Rational line. I've had a quick search around their cert. site and couldn't find any references to J2EE outside these contexts - I could be wrong however? I think in this instance it's wise to take the certification from the source, and the Sun SCWCD 1.4 objectives are rigorous!